Wednesday, September 6, 2017

Business Of Strength Podcast #3 - Marketing Your Gym

Today we live in a false reality where fake lives, fake friends, and fake marketing are the norm. People spend an inordinate amount of time on a variety of social media outlets trying to portray an image that is at best only partially true. They accumulate followers by the thousands, but to their dismay, ARE NOT THEIR REAL FRIENDS!!!

This past week Dan and I had the amazing opportunity to speak in front of over 50 people at the Gym Jones advanced seminar and our two-day Business of Strength mentorship at Varsity House HQ. That opportunity came to life because the “real” relationships we built with the Gym Jones community. We cultivated that relationship over four years spending time going to Utah to train, communicating via email/phone, attending seminars on our own time, helping to coach attendees, and taking the time to listen. When they wanted to improve their business portion of the seminar they turned to people they trusted personally. Likewise, the majority of people who attend our business mentorships are people we have met along our fitness journey. They have had the opportunity to hear our story, see firsthand our passion, find belief in our depth of knowledge, and most of all just get to know as genuinely good dudes. Time is truly more valuable than money.

Taking the time to listen to someone’s needs, answer questions, give honest and critical feedback, and provide a service and value that is needed are sure fire ways to build a trusting friendship. We spent the majority of the time coaching and helping others, not pumping our products and worrying about social media posts. We want to speak to people, meet with them, and connect so we could get to know them and their businesses. As always, we made many new friends and reconnected with some old ones we have not seen in a while.

Fitness for most is about trust. What better way to build trust than to be a friend. If you want to build trust in your community and with your customers start by focusing on them. Provide value and service, and most of all listen to what they want. The best way to do it is through community outreach, referrals, and direct emails. In the end, we are trying to get people to commit to our brand of fitness. To believe and trust in what we tell them, so much so, that they tell their friends and family about us. Most of all we want them to come to our gym! If you would like to hear how Dan and I do it at Varsity House check out our latest podcast on ‘Marketing Your Gym’. It should be no surprise that social media is not on the list, it is centered on building trust and real relationships.